Emergency Escape

Teenagers

The Facts on Teens and Dating Violence
Data from the Family Violence Prevention Fund

While dating, domestic and sexual violence affect women
regardless of their age, teens and young women are especially vulnerable.
Women age 16 to 24 experience the highest rates of rape and sexual assault, and people age 18 and 19 experience the highest rates of stalking. Add to that the 15.5 million U.S. children who live in families in which partner violence occurred at least once in the past three years and you have a huge number of young people in this country whose lives are affected – sometimes shaped – by violence.

Prevalence of Violence
  • Approximately one in three adolescent girls in the United States is a victim of physical, emotional or verbal abuse from a dating partner – a figure that far exceeds victimization rates for other types of violence affecting youth.
  • Nationwide, nearly one in ten high-school students (8.9 percent) has been hit, slapped or physically hurt on purpose by a boyfriend or girlfriend.
  • Nearly one in three sexually active adolescent girls in ninth to twelfth grade (31.5 percent) report ever experiencing physical or sexual violence from dating partners.
  • One in four teen girls in a relationship (26 percent) says she has been threatened with violence or experienced verbal abuse, and 13 percent say they were physically hurt or hit.
  • One in three teens reports knowing a friend or peer who has been hit, punched, kicked, slapped or physically hurt by a partner, and 45 percent of girls know a friend or peer who has been pressured into having either intercourse or oral sex.
  • One in five tweens – age 11 to 14 – say their friends are victims of dating violence and nearly half who are in relationships know friends who are verbally abused. Two in five of the youngest tweens, ages 11 and 12, report that their friends are victims of verbal abuse in relationships.
Consequences of Teen Dating Violence
  • Teen victims of physical dating violence are more likely than their non-abused peers to smoke, use drugs, engage in unhealthy diet behaviors (taking diet pills or laxitives and vomitting to lose weight), engage in risky sexual behaviors, and attempt or consider suicide.
  • Compared with nonabused girls, those who experienced both physical and sexual dating violence are three times more likely to have been tested for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV, and more than twice as likely to report an STD diagnosis.
Service providers in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago include:
Northwest CASA – Crisis intervention for victims of sexual assault, counseling, legal advocacy (English/Spanish/Polish - http://www.nwcasa.org

Safe From the Start is a community response dedicated to reduce the trauma of exposure to violence in children ages birth to 5 in the communities of Northwest Cook County. In collaboration with community agencies, Safe From the Start provides centralized intake, specialist assessments, intensive case management, therapeutic services, community education and violence prevention and professional consultation. www.cachelps.org

Shelter Inc. provides community-based, emergency, temporary and long term housing and foster care services for children and adolescents in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, who are abused, neglected, dependent or in need of supervision. We continually strive to educate the community by increasing public awareness concerning these issues and other social problems directly impacting children and their families as well as providing home visits and parenting education for first time parents through our Healthy Families program. www.shelter-inc.org

Emerging Issues

One in four teens in a relationship say they have been called names, harassed or put down by their partner through cellphones and texting.

One in five teen girls and one in ten younger teen girls (13 to 16) have electronically sent or posted nude or semi-nude photos or videos of themselves. Even more teen girls, 37 percent, have sent or posted sexually suggestive text, email or IM (instant messages).